Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Vermont

Vermont, by road

I-89 and I-91 are the two spines and the Canadian border is close, so many loads are short regional runs. For a plastic pallet buyer in Vermont, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-89, I-91 and I-93 carry most of what leaves, and every empty pallet that comes back has to ride the same road.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Franklin (342), Chittenden (227) and Windham (21), which is 55.8 percent of the state's 1,057. It shares a land border with New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Vermont held 5 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Franklin County has 342 warehousing jobs, 32.4 percent of Vermont's 1,057, the most in the state.
• Chittenden County has 227 warehousing jobs, 21.5 percent of Vermont's 1,057, 115 fewer than Franklin County.
• Windham County has 21 warehousing jobs, 2.0 percent of Vermont's 1,057, 321 fewer than Franklin County.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 2,148 people in Vermont, 2.03 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 5,348 people in Vermont, 5.06 for every warehousing job.
• Vermont holds 0.06 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 1667, spread over 42 establishments averaging 25 jobs each.
• New Hampshire has 3,283 warehousing jobs, 3.11 times the 1,057 in Vermont.
• Massachusetts has 20,695 warehousing jobs, 19.58 times the 1,057 in Vermont.
• New York has 55,371 warehousing jobs, 52.39 times the 1,057 in Vermont.

Who ships pallets here

In Vermont, dairy product manufacturing employs 2,148. Dairy moves through cold rooms and wash bays, so the pallet needs to take both without losing the rating the sheet prints. It tends to lean on stackable or nestable in a cold-friendly resin, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the maker's cold performance and wash guidance.

Dairy product manufacturing is the trade where Vermont is most concentrated, at 6.7 times the national share of employment. A buyer in that trade will tend to ask the questions in the last column first.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 42 warehouse establishments in Vermont sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 21,000 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Words on this page

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Pallet pooling

A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.

Static load

The weight a pallet holds while standing still on a flat floor, spread evenly across the deck. It is the highest of the three ratings.

3PL

A third-party logistics company that stores and ships goods for other businesses.

Creep

Slow, permanent bending of plastic under a steady load. A pallet can hold a load for an hour and bow under it after a month.

Interstate corridor

A freight route named for its highway, together with the metros along it.

Intermodal

Freight that changes between truck, rail and ship in the same container.

Open deck

A deck with slots or a grid, which drains water, sheds dust and weighs less than a solid one.

GMA pallet

The 48 by 40 inch North American standard, named for the Grocery Manufacturers Association that popularised it.